The present invention relates generally to apparatus and methods for creating tramlines, particularly to apparatus and methods for creating tramlines utilizing pneumatic seed planters, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for creating tramlines utilizing air seeders.
The awareness of the value of the use of tramlines or tracks intentionally left unseeded in fields of small grain or like cultivated crops has been increasing with farmers. Specifically, tramlines can be utilized as markers or guides in the fields. For example, tramlines may be utilized while spraying herbicides or other chemicals to eliminate spray overlaps and skips. With high cost, low dose chemicals, overlaps result in increased chemical costs and potential crop injury, while skips result in untreated areas. Likewise, tramlines make it possible to spray in low light conditions thus making it possible to take advantage of cool, calm spraying conditions at night. Spraying at night or early morning is advantageous because less water is needed, as evaporation is less of a problem and dew may be taken advantage of. Further, the stoma openings on the plants' leaves are open so less chemical is needed for the desired results. Further, as no seeds are planted in the tramlines, anything growing in the tramlines indicates the presence of weeds or other wild seedlings such as wild oats.
Further, tramlines can be placed to correspond to the wheels of implements permitting multiple trips across the field without creating additional wheel tracks. Driving on plants may result in uneven maturation, which may be detrimental to the ability to straight combine the crop at harvest. Thus tramlines permit multiple trips across the field such as topdressing nitrogen late in the season to boost yields and protein in a good year, to apply fungicides and growth regulators as often as needed to guard a bumper crop against disease and lodging, and the like, without creating additional wheel tracks.
Prior to the present invention, tramlines were created by plugging the seed rows corresponding to the row where the tramline was desired. However, this had severe limitations in use. Specifically, plant population was reduced because seed was not planted in the blocked row. Further, it was often not necessary that tramlines be present on each pass of the drill. For example, if the width of the seed drill utilized is 41 feet (13 meters) and the width of the sprayer utilized is 82 feet (26 meters), tramlines are only necessary on one pass out of every two passes to create a pattern for spraying. Furthermore, when air seeders are utilized, the seed would often merely pile up behind the blocking means and when the blocking means was removed, the piled up seed would be simultaneously released creating an extreme seed population as well as wasting seed. Also, abutments or other obstructions to the smooth transition of seed in passageways can also cause seeds to pile up and/or can cause seed breakage especially where delivery of seed is made by propelling the seed utilizing forced air such as in air drills.
Thus a need exists to provide apparatus and methods for selectively creating tramlines in fields of cultivated crops which overcome the limitations of prior methods of creating tramlines.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel apparatus and methods for selectively creating tramlines.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods where tramlines are created only on selective passes of the seeding device.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods where the delivery of the amount of metered seed which otherwise would have been delivered to the location of the tramline is not stopped or blocked.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods where the seed population is increased in the rows adjacent to the tramline to eventually cover and shade the tramline to help control weed growth in the tramline.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such novel apparatus and methods where the metered seed which would have otherwise been delivered to the row planter unit corresponding to the desired location of the tramline is diverted to one or both of the adjacent row planter units.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide a novel diverting valve allowing the smooth transition of seed or like material from the inlet to the outlets to prevent pile up or breakage.